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04/15/2012 |
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THOMPSON
INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY ICEBREAKER
by
Polly Reid & Denise DuPont |
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 The
NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour kicked off the season with the
traditional Icebreaker at Thompson International Speedway
and Ron Silk from Norwalk, CT in the Ed Partridge owned,
Reynolds Auto Wrecking/ Schnitzer sponsored Chevrolet who
was crowned the series champion at World Series finale last
fall, opened the 2012 season with the win.
The Icebreaker was extended nine laps over the scheduled
150, the run for the stripe coming down to a green white
checker finish. Leader Silk was lined up on the inside of
Rowan Pennink with Ted Christopher third, Mike Stefanik
fourth and Jimmy Blewett fifth. As the field rounded the
turn for the final green, Pennink crossed the restart line
before the leader and was immediately posted for jumping the
start. While Pennink was clearly the car to actually finish
first, the call from NASCAR officials placed Pennink 10th,
the last car on the lead lap.
“He had me up in the marbles in turns one and two (on the
prior restart) I’m not saying that’s right or wrong,” said
Silk. “He didn’t give me a chance to even have a line down
there. I don’t know, I shouldn’t have picked the inside on
that last restart, I should have picked the outside, but it
didn’t matter because you can’t beat the leader to the line
and he beat me quite a bit. It’s in black and white (about
the call), it’s not a judgment call, you can’t beat the
leader to the line and if you do you have to lift and let
him get at least partially ahead of you- I didn’t write the
rule, I didn’t make the call. I’m just happy to win, I think
we had a car that should have won and we did.”
 According to race control, the penalty was for jumping the
restart because Pennink went before the actual ‘restart
cone.’ That is different than crossing the start/finish line
first where Pennink may have been able to give the lead
back. The original penalty was because Pennink restarted
before the restart line.
The finish bumped Christopher to second, Stefanik to third,
Blewett and Donny Lia the top five. Jamie Tomaino crossed
for sixth with Patrick Emerling, Doug Coby and Wade Cole the
top nine and Pennink tenth.
Christopher who was in third on the restart relayed what he
saw about the final restart. “He definitely jumped the
start. The rule is you can’t beat the leader to the start
finish line, I don’t make the rules.” Christopher was
pleased with his finish. “I think I have a car this year
that is going to be really good once we figure it out. To go
that long on a set of tires without pitting, we actually
thought about not coming in but we did- unfortunately a lot
of cautions at the end. It is a good run to start the
season. We’ve got a good car, I can’t wait for the next
race.” Christopher who started 12th earned the Featherlite
Most Improved Driver award of the race.
 “It’s good to get the first one over, that was a wild one,”
smiled Stefanik. “I was just about in every mess that I
could be in, it was a long day but the crew kept digging- we
got out of here with a third, a lot of other guys got out of
here a lot worse than that. There was a lot of action out
there, some you couldn’t avoid. The car got damaged hard
earlier in the race when someone spun out of two, a chain
reaction, I knew I didn’t have any front bumper so I had to
be more careful on restarts, I didn’t want to do any damage
to the radiator. It’s nice to have a cushion on those
restarts when someone misses a gear you have a little
check-up distance, I had no room for error. The guys did a
good job, I got to thank my team, car owners, for putting
this program together and allowing me to go out and do
something I love to do. It’s been really good.”
“We never had really good luck at the Icebreaker- last year
we were flying through the air. The year before that, we
were a top ten, the way the point structure is now, every
little bit helps,” said Silk’s car owner Ed Partridge. “We
lucked out on a few of those wrecks. You need Lady Luck on
your team, I mean look at Ryan Preece- he was fast and he
got caught up.”
Crew chief for Silk, Tom Grasso admitted those last restarts
were, “nerve racking”. Obviously when you’re leading with
five to go and essentially pulling away, you don’t want a
caution but that’s when they always happen. And of course to
get two or three green white checkers, we didn’t want any of
them. Ronnie kept his head together.” Grasso continued,
“It’s a brand new car, we bought it a year ago and we worked
on it a little bit here and there. We put it together for
the banquet and brought it there- decided to bring that one
since it had a new body on it, brought it a show in
Philadelphia then brought it home and got it ready to go,
this is its first outing. I
 guess that’s pretty good for a
brand new car to win the first race. The guys were
concerned; they wanted to run the old car obviously because
we won the championship with it last year. The old car is
the now the back-up car. I told them, believe me, this car
is going to be just as good.” Grasso smiling added, “I’m
glad it worked out- it didn’t make a liar out of me.”
“This is the first time I’ve ever lead the points at the
first race,” said Grasso. “We’ll enjoy that for the next two
weeks, come back and we’ll see what we can do at Stafford.”
“A goal every season is to win a race,” added Silk. “So with
that out of the way the first week, now the goal is to just
go win more. We definitely have the team and the equipment
to do it- we’ll see what we can get rolling here.”
Ryan Preece who set fast time to earn the first Coors Light
pole award the day before, led twice for a total of 86
circuits. Pitting, the Berlin, CT driver was working his way
to the front when he was caught up in a multi-car incident
in turn three with just over 25 to go. While Preece was able
to make it to pit row, radiator damage kept Preece from
returning to the field ending his day 16th.
Jimmy Blewett was in the top ten during most of the 150 laps
at the Thompson race opener. He crossed the start finish
line in fourth place with the Blewett family car in one
piece. Blewett not only avoided accidents but ran with the
leaders keeping pace to the end. “It is just a good start
for us for the year. We have a new crew. Some of my
brother’s old crew came out to help me here this week. I
kind of threw everything together at the last minute for the
most part. There are some of the guys that helped me when I
drove the #14 car last year. And Kevin Crowley crew chiefing
us I think is key. For the first race on the Tour this is
good for us. The first race that he (Kevin Crowley) was with
us we won the Turkey Derby Race. I am just excited to come
out of this race so strong. We were only planning to run on
a limited schedule but I feel if we keep this consistency
and we are in the top five in points we may be able to run a
couple of more shows then we had planned. My grandpa and a
couple of sponsors I am sure will support us. We would do it
but we just did not plan on it. We will see where the next
couple take us and we will try to keep it focused.”
Two veterans beat the odds and have top ten finishes.
Jamie Tomaino
Jamie Tomaino finished the 150 lap Icebreaker in sixth spot
after avoiding many incidents and driving cautiously to
finish the race. “The last couple of years here the same
thing has happened at this race. Unfortunately people drive
over their heads and make mistakes. They think the race is
75 laps not 150.”
“The last couple of years I was actually caught up in some
of the stuff myself. So this year when my car went away on
us we started making adjustments and I told my son that is
my crew chief: “We are going to just keep on making
adjustments and hang out back here. It looks like nobody is
going to become lapped today and we will wait until towards
the end of the race. It seems like it all came into play for
me and before you know with five laps to go we were running
in the top ten. So I felt good I may not be as fast as a lot
of guys but sometimes your brains are a little more
important than your gas pedal foot.”
Wade Cole
Wade Cole was caught up in a few incidents, spun on his own
but in the end ran a consistently paced race. Cole completed
the Icebreaker 150 in nine place. “We are lucky to survive
it. There were a lot of close calls and we made it out of
them. I had trouble with the steering. It steered into the
turns fine but then I could not straighten the car back out.
There was no steering back to the right. So the car got me
into trouble a couple of times. We will fix the rack and we
should be good. We will review the car and make a few tweaks
on it and this is a good way to start the year. We had a
great day and it was beautiful race day.”
The NWMT makes their next stop at Stafford Motor Speedway
April 29th for the Spring Sizzler.
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Source:
Polly Reid & Denise DuPont /
TheChromeHorn.com
Posted: April
15, 2012 |
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